From the pages of Canadian Railway Modeller: Morgan Turney, in his own words

  My turn to write a Dome Car again! This time, I give readers a peek behind the editing curtain by answering questions about articles. Questions like why it takes so long to publish them, and why we edit them at all. And I proclaim the advantage of e-mail, still a relatively new technology back then. (We were still getting a lot of articles sent to us on disks.) And I let readers know about their chance to see, for the very first time, the great Waterloo Region Model Railway Club layout. (In the pages of CRM.) These days, we get to see it often online. But back then, CRM was the only way people across the country could learn about it—another great reason why the magazine was such a good thing for Canadian modellers.   One of the questions we get asked most frequently is: "When will my article be published?" As a freelance author myself, I know how hard it is to wait to see if an article is accepted by a publication, and then wait to see it in print. But the truth is th...

  And we’re talking about GMD-1s again! Morgan saw two brass GMD-1s at a train show. He noted they garnered a lot of interest. It made him wonder if any brave Canadian company might make one in plastic. Seventeen years later, Rapido Trains did just that! Morgan also talks about changes to railfanning in this Dome Car, noting that in the old days there were a lot more trains to watch. In 1999, when this was written, trains were already fewer and longer. And then there’s mention of this favourite railfan location at Rennie, MB, one of two places in the province where the CP and CN transcontinental mainlines crossed each other. (The other is a Portage la Prairie, at grade.) And don’t miss the novel way he chose a raffle winner; it involves postcards, a bucket, a fast-moving train and that bridge!   We have a winning contestant from our 50th issue contest. First though, you may ask, "How' d you determine the winner?" That part was easy. We took all of the eligible post ca...

  It may be hard for some younger modellers to believe, but there was a time when you really couldn’t get quality models of Canadian prototypes. Like the GMD 1, which has been manufactured by Rapido Trains. But in this issue of the Dome Car—number 50—Morgan is excited to share there will soon be an article about how to scratchbuild a GMD 1. (The loco was made available in brass in the 1970s, I think, but models were hard to find later and expensive.) And speaking of issue number 50, Morgan expresses the wish that CMR will be around for 50 more. He just made that mark, publishing 52 more issues before closing it down. Issue number 50 has finally arrived! The cover photo for this edition is the winning photo from our Modellers' Photo contest (run over the past two issues.) It's fitting that Pierre Dion, who has contributed his time and talents to the magazine over the last number of years with his fine model photos and articles, has the winning photo on the cover. The remai...

  As Morgan noted in this Dome Car, CRM was approaching a milestone: the 50 th issue. That might not seem like a big deal for magazines like Model Railroader, which was founded in 1934. But for a little Canadian magazine, it was a very big deal—and Morgan wanted to mark that occasion with a special give-away to readers. This issue also commemorated the death of Nicholas Morant, famous for taking photos of CPR trains at what became known as “Morant’s Curve.” Morgan took time to note his passing, too.   As most of our readers know, Canadian Railway Modeller magazine is quickly approaching some major milestones.   The issue after this one will be our 50th and, in appreciation of that fact, we have been offered a very unique gift that we have chosen to give away to one of our many readers. While attending the annual Toronto Train Show this year, I had the pleasure of meeting David Oram, one of Canada's newest artists. David has produced a beautiful painting of CNR 6258 a...

On the first anniversary of Morgan's death, a few words of reflection and remembrance.  In journalism parlance, a character is someone with a distinctive personality, someone who stands out, who is memorable. Maybe even has rough edges, rubbing others the wrong way. But he (and it’s usually a he) is very good at their job.   In that respect, Morgan Turney was a character.   Morgan, who died a year ago today, Feb. 6, had a large personality — and a large vision to go along with it. He knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it. Morgan and I got along, despite our differences. He was more conservative, I was more progressive. I was churchgoing, that wasn't his thing. He was forceful, I was more laid back. We were a bit of yin and yang—opposites who needed each other and helped each other along the way.   In my case, what I brought were my journalistic abilities. Morgan was a good writer, but his grammar wasn’t the best. At first, I volunteered to help him b...

  Once again, I am showing my age when I talk about how we used to take photos of our layouts. Digital cameras existed in 1999, when this Dome Car was written (link below), but they didn’t take off as an inexpensive consumer item until the early 2000s. Until then, if you wanted to take a photo of your layout you used an SLR film camera, bracketing your shots by modifying the lighting (you needed portable lights, too!) and aperture settings in the hope that one would turn out. After taking the photos, it was off to a developer and then wait a few days or more to see the results. Nothing like today, with our phone cameras which do a great job of model photography! Anyway, that’s all just an introduction to this month’s Dome Car, where Morgan explains the CRM photo contest.   Readers will notice an article in this issue about taking modelling photos. I asked Bob Winterton to do it for us, in support of the Modeller' s Photo contest we have running right now.   Since ...